Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

Hide your Big Gulps again, New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week his administration will pick up where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg left off and will continue the battle to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city will appeal a state court ruling that pulled the plug on the ban last year. City lawyers will argue the case at the Court of Appeals on June 4, the New York Daily News reported this week. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got plenty of headlines in 2012 when he declared war on Big Gulps and other large sugary drinks. The...

With just days to go before two of Philadelphia's most prestigious hospitals refuse to hire smokers, the ban has relit a debate about the wisdom of regulating workers' behavior away from the workplace. Both the highly rated University of Pennsylvania Health System, which includes the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, named by US News and World Report as America's top children's hospital this year, will join dozens of hospitals across the country when they implement their policy on Monday, July 1. The move has generated criticism among civil liberties activists, hospital...

Where are todayÂ’s rebels?Â Where is the counterculture? Ear-budded hipsters, with their sheep-like devotion to Apple products and the Obama administration, sit in on the April 20 Â“Day of PotÂ” in Denver, content and satisfied with their free birth control and legalized maryjane.Â Meanwhile SWAT teams descend on Watertown, Massachusetts, trampling Fourth Amendment rights in search of a Â“person of interestÂ”â€“ while a Saudi National is quietly sent back to his homeland.These hipsters champion the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado while the war on Big Tobacco rages on.Â Since 1997 the FDA inherited control over the $365.5 billion global...

NYC Mayor Bloomberg is behind a secret cabal of neighborhood spies who run around convincing tenants and landlords to disallow all smoking by tenants, even within their own apartments.The community spy groups get a $10,000 bounty for their efforts. The bounty is coming out of a grant, in other words, our tax money. This is ripe for corruption to say nothing about the whole stealth factor being unethical, sneaky, and communistic. It pits neighbor against neighbor and it demonizes people.But donâ€™t worry, it is for the common good.Iâ€™ve never smoked in my life and I donâ€™t like being around cigarettes,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: From TheHill.com: "Two weeks after fighting for the survival of its signature healthcare reform law before the Supreme Court, the Obama administration will be back in court Tuesday to defend another part of the president's agenda to make Americans healthier." Do you love the way that's written at TheHill.com? Let me read this to you again. The headline: "Another Health Law Faces Court Challenge." But TheHill.com, total slaves to the Obama administration: "Two weeks after fighting for the survival of its signature healthcare reform law before the Supreme Court, the Obama administration will be back in court...

RICHMOND, Va. -- More work needs to be done to keep young Americans from using tobacco, including creating smoking bans and increasing taxes on tobacco products, the U.S. Surgeon General's office said in a report released Thursday. Almost one in five high school-aged teens smokes, down from earlier decades, but the rate of decline has slowed, the report said. It says it's particularly important to stop young people from using tobacco because those who start smoking as teenagers can increase their chances of long-term addiction. They also quickly can experience reduced lung function, impaired lung growth, early heart disease and...

SPOKANE, Wash. | As quests for freedom go, it’s not exactly the fight against apartheid in South Africa. But cigar smokers around the country are fed up with smoking bans that prevent them from enjoying stogies in cigar bars with friends. A rising number of states have moved to exempt cigars from indoor smoking bans, often by establishing cigar bars or smoking lounges inside cigar stores. Pro-cigar groups have sprung up nationally and in most states, spreading a message that their product is fundamentally different from cigarettes. Cigar smokers are not interested in exposing the general public to their pungent...

It is obvious that few, including Congress, understand that America is a Constitutional Republic and not a Pure Democracy. The reason: Our founders, in their infinite wisdom, made it so that mob rule cannot reign. So that mobocracy does not occur and individuals, even a minority in number, are protected from a tyranny of the majority. This is supposed to be done by checks, such as actually following that pesky old Constitution and not legislating morality or behavior. Well, apparently the beliefs upon which our Nation was founded go right out the window if you simply don’t like something. I...

Casinos in Illinois have posted double-digit revenue declines since a smoking ban took effect there in January. And it's not primarily because high air fares stop tourists from visiting the Windy City in search of a game of chance. "The smoking ban is having a major impact," Tom Swoik, head of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, told The Wall Street Journal last week. Share & Save Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites What is this? A 2005 research paper by the...

Pennsylvania's statewide smoking ban, 15 years in the making in Harrisburg, became law today. Cindy Thomas, executive director of Tobacco Free Allegheny, has provided answers to these questions about the new law, which bans smoking in most public places and is aimed at making the state's workplaces smoke-free. What penalties does a person face if he or she is caught smoking in a place where smoking is prohibited? The Clean Indoor Air Act provides for the following penalties: The owner, operator or manager of the premises may be penalized for failure to post proper signs. Each offense can bring a...

Velvet Glove Iron Fist A History of Anti-Smoking by Christopher Snowdon The bookWelcome. Thanks for visiting and please stay a while. Velvet Glove, Iron Fist is the first comprehensive history of the anti-smoking movement. This book has not yet been published but several chapters are available here free of charge (these are chapters three, ten, eleven and thirteen). Or you might prefer to start with the introduction. In the news05.08.08:Velvet Glove author obtains data from Wales showing that heart attack incidence rose after the Welsh smoking ban. Politician accused of wilfully misleading the public. See original article and this...

After just returning from a 2 week holiday to my home country, I can sadly conclude we Brits have become obsessed with public smoking. I can understand why people shouldn’t smoke on trains, but even in the outside of a train station, as long as it is covered, NO SMOKING! At Heathrow airport, NO SMOKING! (Even Changi Airport in Singapore has had the civility to keep smoking rooms available for those inclined.) In every pub, NO SMOKING In every hotel, NO SMOKING Thank god I live in smoker’s paradise.

Reactions from smokers ranged from stunned to furious -- and often unprintable. "Outside?" gasped Isaac Kim, who's about to start pre-pharmacy classes at the Silver Spring/Takoma Park campus. "Do they have the right to do that?" Welcome to the land of tolerance and freedom Mr. Kim. Your rights will be dictated to you in the Citizens Manual. Should you stray, they have a special police force to enforce your right not to smoke or chew tobacco. See if you can pick out the innocent-sounding, Stalinist name for the anti-smoking cops. And yes, employees could ultimately be fired or students kicked...

In recent years, state and local governments across the United States have passed measures to outlaw smoking in bars, says the American. The public health rationale is simple: to protect bar patrons and employees from exposure to secondhand smoke. But according to economists Scott Adams of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chad Cotti of the University of South Carolina, smoking bans have had some unintended and deadly consequences. Specifically, they have led to an increase in drunk-driving fatalities. The economists studied a variety of municipalities that passed smoking bans. According to their research: The passage of the bans led to...

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B. But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status. When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of Ł30 - for smoking in his place of work.

Smokers would find it harder to buy their cigarettes and light up in public under two proposals under consideration by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city's public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States. Supervisor Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would vastly limit areas where people can smoke. Gone would be smoking in all businesses and bars, which now make an exception for owner-operated ones....

When they weren't breaking the law or going in and out of jail, the Jersey Boys who went on to become the Four Seasons were hanging out on street corners singing with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Not in Chicago. Here, lead singer Frankie Valli, song-writing sensation Bob Gaudio and the boys have gone cold turkey Following an apparent complaint from an irate theatergoer, the Chicago theatrical production of "Jersey Boys" has snuffed out cigarettes...

STILLWATER: Oklahoma State University today becomes the largest campus in the state to ban tobacco. Getting Burns Hargis to work early sure has paid off for OSU. OSU President Burns Hargis said the policy aims to make OSU a clean and healthy environment. "We have enough afflictions that affect the human condition without voluntarily adding to the problem, he said. "It sets a strong example and a consistent example of our commitment to be a healthy and attractive campus. OSU's wellness center offers cessation help and, in some cases, medication and nicotine replacement products, to students and employees. Student Charles...

Cannabis lovers will be exempted from a public smoking ban in the Netherlands from next week onwards. Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands but has been decriminalised, with small quantities sold in coffee shops, making them big attractions for tourists. Cutting the Cannabis with tobacco which some smokers do, could land the shop owners a fine of up to 2,400 euros (3,778 US dollars). Not a problem, says coffee shop owner Arjan Roskam whose marijuana strains have won 31 Cannabis Cup prizes over the years and who count Hollywood celebrities, members of Europe's royal families, lawyers, judges and police...

Businesses have had more than a year to acclimate to Ohio's indoor smoking ban, but state lawmakers are now exploring ways to adapt that ban to businesses. Two legislators are pushing for changes in Ohio's Smoke Free Workplace Law, with one asking for new definitions of family-owned businesses and private clubs and the second seeking to exempt bars that serve little food. Sen. Robert Schuler, R-Sycamore Township, said the goal of Senate Bill 346 is to redefine businesses covered by the law. House Bill 592, proposed by Rep. Diana Fessler, R-Bethel Township, would add the term "standalone bars" to the...

Smoking in public places could be banned in rural Dane County towns under an ordinance being introduced Thursday night before the Dane County Board of Supervisors. Backers, including County Executive Kathleen Falk and County Board Chairman Scott McDonell, announced the effort at a news conference Thursday morning at the Nau-ti-gal restaurant in the town of Westport. County Board Supervisor Mark Opitz of Middleton, who is one of the ordinance's sponsors, said their hope is to encourage cities and villages to follow the lead of the county and other area municipalities that have adopted smoking ordinances. If approved, the ban would...

Looking for good ethnic food? Sample San Antonio. Attractive people? Head to Minneapolis. A romantic escape? Try Santa Fe. They may not be the most obvious choices, but lately they have all out-ranked Boston. Once deemed the most European city in America and routinely ranked as a top travel destination, Boston's place in the minds of travelers has been eclipsed by up-and-coming cities in recent years. When Travel + Leisure rated the best cities in North America earlier this year, Boston wasn't even on the list. Condé Nast Traveler's "Reader's Choice Award" this week put Boston at No. 10, a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A coalition of health associations on Tuesday pulled its support from Senate legislation to ban indoor smoking in Pennsylvania because the bill would extend partial or full exemptions to private clubs, bars and casinos. In addition, Gov. Ed Rendell threatened a veto over an exemption added Monday that he said would allow smoking in small home-based child-care settings. The legislation, which also would upend a stricter ban enacted in Philadelphia last year, was scheduled for a final vote in the Senate on Tuesday, one day after the chamber added the exemptions to a broadly written bill. The...

A day after he implied that Ireland should not follow New York City’s example and pass a ban on smoking in all workplaces, Rudolph Giuliani called Mayor Michael Bloomberg to say that was not what he meant. Bloomberg said the former mayor told him that he meant that Ireland, which currently has no smoking restrictions, should begin to restrict smoking slowly, rather than all at once. “He just thought that sometimes you go partways to get there, let people adjust and then go the rest of the way,” Bloomberg said yesterday. Giuliani said that it made more sense to restrict...

Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to ban smoking in all public places, including bars, is likely to reignite a longstanding feud between local tavern owners and casinos owned by American Indian tribes. The casinos would be exempt from the proposed ban because they are located on tribal lands not subject to state or local laws.The smoking ban proposal announced Wednesday "would probably not apply to us," said Katie Funmaker, a spokeswoman for the Ho-Chunk tribe, which operates casinos in Wisconsin Dells and Black River Falls and the Dejope gaming facility on Madison's east side.Funmaker noted that smoking is allowed at Dejope...

A year after a statewide smoking ban took effect at workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public places, a new battlefield over secondhand smoke is emerging: apartment buildings. Spurred on by nonsmoking tenants and public-health leaders, more private landlords are considering restricting smoking inside their rental units. And local public-housing agencies are also looking at banning smoking in the units of some buildings. *snip* While the state ban prohibits smoking in the common areas of private apartment buildings, such as hallways, community rooms and libraries, residents may smoke inside their units unless the landlord prohibits it. But smoke from one unit...

Stop smoking guru Allen Carr dies of lung cancer Last updated at 13:00pm on 29th November 2006 Allen Carr - the man who convinced millions of people to give up smoking - has died after losing his battle with lung cancer. The 72-year-old was at his home near Malaga in Spain and his family were with him, a spokeswoman said. Mr Carr was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in the summer. Friends said it seemed probable that the years he spent curing smokers in smoke-filled sessions at his clinics must have contributed to the illness. Mr Carr had said: "Given...

Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services has approved a new rule that will prohibit any family that has foster children living with them from smoking in their own home. "The rule prohibits foster parents from smoking in their homes, as long as there are children assigned to their homes," said Darrell Azar of the TDPRS. "It also bans foster parents from smoking in their cars if there are children present in their cars. It is believed to be the toughest anti smoking rules in the country, and the first rules ever approved that prohibit smoking inside detached homes. Azar...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's Health Care will require all their employees to not use tobacco at any time during their work shift beginning January 1. The staffs of both hospitals will need to arrive without smelling of smoke, and they can't use any tobacco products until they leave hospital property after their shift. Metro Health is also joining in the Smoke-Free Work Day Every Day campaign. In 2003, the Grand Rapids hospitals became the first in the country to jointly declare their hospital campuses smoke-free. Today, more than 30 Michigan hospitals have smoke-free campuses. This...

SEATTLE -- Non-tribal casinos have already lost tens of millions of dollars because of Washington’s new indoor smoking ban. A new financial study, conducted by our own KIRO Team 7 Investigators, discovers taxpayers could loose millions as well. Card-rooms, charity bingo halls, and some bars and restaurants are required to report financial information to the state every year. The state hasn't had a chance to look at the figures since the smoking ban took effect. I have. It looks like "no smoking" means economic devastation for the non-tribal gaming industry. If there was ever any doubt that gamblers are also...

Following are actual statistics reflecting examples of the negative impact upon individual businesses following the recently instituted smoking ban ordinances, effective in Springfield, Illinois and surrounding unincorporated Sangamon County this September 15, 2006 (less than two weeks ago). When small businesses account for about two-thirds of our country's economic growth and new jobs, it is difficult to comprehend elected officials' reasoning in voting to implement an intrusive ordinance which will hurt those same business owners. A restaurant owner who does not permit smoking will see it as a violation of his property rights if a coalition uses the political...

Delaware County's ban on smoking in most work places has become a problem for some nursing homes, which are both work places for employees and homes for the residents. The smoking ordinance does not prevent people from smoking in their homes, but it does ban smoking in most public buildings and work spaces. If a nursing home bans smoking, they could lose federal funding for failing to comply with regulations, but if they allow smoking they could face fines or a lawsuit from the county health department, officials said. Federal regulations state that if a nursing home changes its...

Churchill Downs could be hurt financially if it is forced to go completely smoke free, a company official said Wednesday. Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs Inc.’s vice president for national public affairs, told a Louisville Metro Council committee considering a new, tougher smoking ban, that the race track is already facing heavy competition from Indiana and from computer and telephone betting services.And he said the company’s experience at a Florida track shows some people will stop betting when a smoking ban takes effect. But the former head of the Greater Louisville Medical Society testified that his group favors a complete...

A private smokers club in Smiths Falls challenged Ontario's indoor smoking ban with its grand opening Friday — and Ontario officials did not brave the fumes to attend. Instead, the club's founder was charged under the province's Smoke-Free Ontario act the day before it opened. Since Ontario's indoor workplace and public smoking ban went into effect, ashtrays and cigars have been illegal in bars. The grand opening of Do' Little's pub as a club for members of a private smokers association took place at noon at the Comfort Inn on Centre Street in Smiths Falls, about 65 kilometres south of...

Park Ridge aldermen will resume discussion of the city's public smoking ban, following complaints from three restaurant owners that their businesses have been adversely affected by it.The restaurant owners spoke briefly to the City Council Monday night, prompting Mayor Howard Frimark to ask the aldermen if the smoking ban should be brought back before the Procedures and Regulations Committee. Alderman Jeannie Markech agreed that it should, and made a motion for the discussion. Eight aldermen voted in favor of the issue going back to committee and five voted against. One alderman was absent.The next meeting of the Procedures and Regulations...

There have been a bunch of books about the mistakes made after the American invasion of Baghdad, George Packer's Assassin's Gate and Thomas Ricks' Fiasco being the two best in my opinion.Yesterday, the Washington Post published an excerpt from Rajiv Chandrasekaran's effort. He was their bureau chief there for a few years and his book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, will be released tomorrow.I haven't read the book, but the excerpt is as damning as anything could be. It outlines how people were recruited to serve in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the group that ran...

Jobs are being eliminated by special interest activist organizations Now that air quality test results by the likes of the American Cancer Society are proving that the secondhand smoke kills argument is completely fabricated. http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html It's time for lawmakers to investigate why this fallacy has permeated the local government debate.....and specifically who is funding and spreading that false information. http://www.rwjf.org/about/founder.jhtml The "who" is in large part the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And since RWJF is an affiliate of the Johnson & Johnson Company (the manufacturer of competing nicotine product interests Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ), it stands to reason that the...

Robin Brayman, a 44-year-old Greenfield resident, thought she had saved quite a bit of money buying cigarettes online, until she received a bill from the state demanding more than $2,000 in unpaid sales and cigarette taxes. "I had no idea. When I first started buying, the Web site said the cigarettes were tax-free, duty-free. You assumed you didn't have to pay anything," Brayman said. Brayman, like many other smokers, purchases cigarettes online because they are offered at a deep discount. A carton of Marlboro Full Flavor 100s costs $29.45 plus shipping from BuyCheapCigarettes.com, the site Brayman patronized. The same...

ROCKTON -- Rockton leaders snuff out an idea to ban smoking at public places. Tuesday night at their meeting, a motion to draft an ordinance banning smoking in public places failed to get anywhere. Rockton Village Trustee Dennis Meade put the issue before board members, but no one seconded the motion. The proposal would've kept people from lighting up on streets, sidewalks, parks and in businesses. Several community members including business owners spoke out at the meeting against a ban saying it would hurt their business. Others claimed it a ban would go against their rights. One person at...

Incense and candles release substantial quantities of pollutants that may harm health, a detailed new study of air quality in a Roman Catholic church suggests. Even brief exposure to contaminated air during a religious service could be harmful to some people, says atmospheric scientist Stephan Weber of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany. A previous study in the Netherlands indicated that the pollutants in smoke from incense and candles may be more toxic than fine-particle pollution from sources such as vehicle engines. Numerous studies have examined the health effects of combustion by-products from major outdoor sources, such as automobiles...

The mother of deceased Ground Zero worker James Zadroga described Mayor Bloomberg as a "cold, heartless person" for opposing a series of new laws that address the health battles of 9/11 rescuers."I don't think he realizes how the common people live - maybe for one month he should try and live on $500 a week," Linda Zadroga wrote in a letter to the Daily News. "But when [you're] a billionaire, you have no concept of the so-called middle class. Well, one day he may have some tragedy in his family he will need to deal with, and then maybe...

NON-SMOKERS are being banned from drinking in outdoor smoking areas in pubs and clubs under draconian council rules. Some councils are forcing licensed venues to hire bouncers to enforce the bans, costing tens of thousands of dollars a year, while preventing non-smokers from using outdoor areas. It has raised concerns about discrimination against non-smokers and suggestions that councils are going beyond the State Government's legislation and imposing their own rules. The Daily Telegraph has learned that at least two councils – Fairfield and North Sydney – have already employed the tactic when approving development applications from premises wishing to...

Senator Susan Collins introduced legislation on Aug. 3 to help crack down on illegal sales of tobacco to children by banning the shipment of cigarettes and other tobacco products through the U.S. mail. Specifically, the bill would add cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to the U.S. Postal Service's list of restricted, non-mailable products. A first violation of mailing such a product would be liable for a civil penalty of up to $5,000 or 10 times the estimated retail value of the tobacco products, including all federal, state, and local taxes, whichever is highest. Civil penalties of up to $100,000 would...

WASHINGTON -- Quietly leaving his post as surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona said he would judge himself successful if he had persuaded one student to make good health choices or one mother to stop smoking. Carmona's report condemning secondhand smoke was a hallmark of his tenure as the nation's 17th surgeon general.

The issue is no longer just about smoking. Passing a state law outlawing smoking in most public places was, by this comparison, the easiest thing to do. The law was not required to address the inevitable hardships such a bill was destined to inflict. There was clapping and backslapping on the floor of the state Senate the afternoon it passed there. But none of that really matters now, when the issue is one of how it impacts people's lives. They are men and women who once ran tiny, yet prosperous, packed-to- the-kegs establishments, who now tend mostly empty bars. The...

They're making one last attempt to force the City of Beaumont to continue to allow smoking in bars and restaurants. Opponents of a ban on smoking in public buildings say they don't have enough signatures right now, but they plan to work hard in the next 24 hours getting the support they need. Lee Melton/Comedy, Texas "I own a business and pay a lot of Taxes and now I can't smoke in my own building." Smoking ban opponents say they are not quitting when it comes to getting enough signatures on this petition. Lee Melton/Comedy, Texas "Four ladies on...